“Baseball opinions are like assholes… everybody’s got one and most of them stink.” — Harry Caray

Best game ever?

Did Matt Cain throw the greatest game ever? That’s the question being posed by many today in the world of sports, and based on what I saw and looking at perfect game history I would have to say, yes. Of the 22 perfect games in MLB history only Sandy Koufax matched Cain’s 14 strikeouts, but Koufax’s game did not include an incredible catch like Gregor Blanco’s 7th inning catch that was a bullet hit to the warning track in right center field that seemed like it was surely splitting the gap. Somehow an outstretched Blanco got there in time to make the catch and hold onto the ball while sliding across the warning track. That catch was more amazing than what White Sox fans know as “The Catch” by Dwayne Wise during Mark Buehrle’s perfect game. Wise leaped over the wall and brought a potential 9th inning homerun back into the park and somehow grabbed a bobbling ball while falling to the ground. Blanco had no time to set and get under the ball as Wise did, so that’s why Blanco’s catch rates higher to me on the amazing catch scale. Both are Top 10 highlight real plays. Melky Cabrera also made a solid catch on another laser shot that was headed to the wall that he leaped up and caught. Cabrera has lived up to the billing this year for the Giants. According to the Bill James Game Score method, Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout, one-hitter gem is the greatest game with a 105. Cain’s performance along with Koufax and Nolan Ryan’s 16-strikeout, two-walk no-hitter are ranked second highest with a 101. It is an interesting argument to determine what is a better performance, a 14-strikeout perfect game or a 20-strikeout, one-hitter? Woods performance was epic; I remember the game well and how his ball was moving all over the place. He could have struck out 27 with the way he was pitching that day, but at the same time it had been done twice already by Roger Clemens and once by Randy Johnson, and 21 strikeouts was accomplished by Tom Cheney of the Washington Senators who pitched all 16-innings of an extra inning game. To me, Cheney’s performance sounds pretty amazing; 10 hits, 4 walks, and one run over 16 innings along with the 21 strikeouts. I would have to stick with my original assessment that Cain’s game is the best game ever, not just because of the rarity of the high strikeout number in regards to perfect games, but because of all the great defensive plays, too. Whether you agree with me or not about last nights Giants game being the greatest performance of all time, you will have to agree it’s the best perfecto in the modern era of baseball.